Shattered: A Naruto Fanfic Oneshot
by Lover of Stories 24
Summary: Sasuke & Sakura. Crushed under the pressure of the foot that ground down mercilessly upon it, the familiar little picture frame shattered to a thousand shards of glass, a thousand tiny pieces of wood, a thousand scattered bits of left behind memories.


Sakura smiled sadly down at the picture frame, her fingers running softly over the smooth surface of the wood. It was the last thing left in Sasuke's deserted room. The rest of his belongings had been moved out the day before and sold to the RFGK, Rabid FanGirls of Konoha. The profits, of course, had gone to Lady Tsunade, who'd probably already lost them in the nearest casino instead of using them for the improvement of the village like most Hokages would have.

But, by some stroke of luck, this picture frame, sitting alone in a corner, had been overlooked. That made sense, actually. After all, who would want some insignificant old picture frame when you could have practically _anything_ that had belonged to _the_ Sasuke Uchiha? Not to mention the fact that the frame was empty. Now, if it had contained some kawaii baby picture of its owner, that would have been different, but the sad truth was that it didn't.

Though no one else would have wanted it because of this trait, the fact that it was empty was actually quite comforting. Since the frame was empty, that meant Sasuke most likely had taken the picture with him. Sakura recognized it as the frame that had held the official Team 7 photograph, which had been taken shortly after the time when they had first met Kakashi. Ah, those days seemed so far back, so long ago.

The girl tucked the simple frame into her pouch gingerly, reluctant to lose contact with it, as if she thought it would disappear into nothingness the minute her head was turned. "Sasuke-kun," she whispered, closing the door behind her as she left the room, "The next time I see you, you had better have that picture with you."

* * *

"Bonds... Friendship... I have no desire for such foolishness. Stop wasting my time."

Crushed under the pressure of the foot that ground down mercilessly upon it, the familiar little picture frame shattered to a thousand shards of glass, a thousand tiny pieces of wood, a thousand scattered bits of left behind memories. A despairing scream tore through the air, knifing through a cold stone heart like it was a lump of butter.

And Sakura's world stopped.

The kunoichi swayed precariously at the cliff's edge, nearly crashing off the precipice to the sharp fate awaiting any unfortunate victims below. She barely cared anymore whether she lived or died. Her eyes swam, not with tears, but with quickly blurring vision that made her dizzy. But before she left the ground for the lethal drop, an iron-hard blow to her back sent her skidding in the opposite direction, making her nerves scream with pain. This time when her eyes swam, it was with the tears that had suddenly sprung to them. Her mouth dropped open to let out a cry of pure agony, but nothing came out. When she regained her voice, an ear-bursting shriek tore out from her lips.

"You're welcome," Sasuke said dryly, one eyebrow raised. "Isn't suicide illegal?"

Sakura gasped, scrunching her eyes shut as if doing so could suppress the pain flooding through her. "Thanks..._not_," she gritted out through her teeth.

"That's got to hurt."

"Shut up." The candy-haired girl knelt down, fingering the pieces of the broken frame. She hardly noticed that the sharp slivers of glass were cutting into fingers, that the cracked bits of wood were leaving splinters in her skin. Her tears splashed down, turning the wood a shade darker and washing off the dusty glass. "Sasuke-kun...I hate you."

"Have you given up yet?" he asked, ignoring her.

"Given up on what, Sasuke-kun?" she asked sweetly, her voice like poison coated with sugar, then rushed on before he could get in an answer. "On becoming Mrs. Uchiha? Of course. On stealing your first kiss? Yes, long ago, when that dobe beat me to it. On kicking your ass and dragging you back to Konoha? Hell, no." Her lips crossed in a grim smile. "You're going to regret the day you left us for Orochimaru."

Sasuke smirked. "I look forward to it."

The wind blew through their hair, scattering the strands of pink and midnight black in the light breeze. Sakura's figure blurred and vanished, moving far too fast to be seen by the naked human eye. Within seconds, the air was thick with the hails of shuriken that seemed to form almost out of thin air. They rushed with deadly precision and accuracy, missing Sasuke by mere hair's-breaths.

Sasuke's eyes flashed and their onyx irises turned to red, black comma-like dots swirling within their depths. "Your aim has improved. But you could never hit me if I wasn't allowing you to." He shrugged, unimpressed. "To think the challenge I expected was, in reality, nothing more than this pathetic display." His eyes closed briefly, then were open once again. "Chidori!" He dove downwards, thrusting a chirping mass of lightning-blue energy into the ground, which rippled and broke, hurling up pieces of earth.

Sakura yelped and shot out from under the ground, her eyes watery from the pain. The smell of burnt flesh emanated from a large ash black mark on her arm that clashed with the pale white of the skin surrounding it. But she couldn't stop to rest... Couldn't give Sasuke-teme such an easy triumph. With a deft handsign and a poof of smoke, she was gone.

"Still playing hide-and-seek, are we?" Sasuke asked, his voice not quite as scornful as she would have expected. "Your current location is even more obvious than the last one."

The kunoichi materialized at his back, her wounds fully healed. "Now, what would I need to hide for?" she snorted, slamming her chakra-enflamed fist into him. He barely moved from the impact, yet her hand dripped with blood. "How-!?" she whispered in disbelief, staring at the crimson flecks spattering her skin.

Sasuke swept behind her in one fell swoop, which was followed by a short blow to the base of her skull.

Sakura gasped and pitched forward, meeting the ground in a rather undignified manner. Surprisingly, she remained awake, sheer willpower being the only thing keeping her from passing out. She reached out in front of her, her motions slowed, and grasped for the shards of the broken picture frame. Her hand closed around them, letting the sharp edges draw her blood. A tear trickled down her cheek and pooled out onto her fingers.

Sasuke motioned to the fragments of glass at his feet. "Relationships are like glass," he said coldly. "Sometimes it's better to leave them broken...than hurt yourself trying to put them back together." Then he was gone, a distant figure against the horizon.

The girl was quiet, pondering his words. "No, Sasuke-kun...you're wrong," she finally murmured, slowly succumbing to the pull of sleep's oblivion. "It would be better...to die trying to mend a friendship...then to leave it for dead..." Her heavy eyelids dropped shut at long last, and she departed from the world of consciousness.

**Author's Notes: **I do not own Naruto, blah blah blah...You know the drill.


End file.
